Notes on this week's new releases:
- Let's Eat Grandma hinted at something slightly amazing a few weeks ago with Hot Pink, but they've really pulled it out of the bag with Falling Into Me, an intense and brilliant electronic belter whose sprawling, almost girlsaloudian structure is one of this year's most beautiful pop things.
- Sia's latest David Guetta collaboration, Flames, is the best thing she's done in ages.
- Please take a moment this weekend to investigate Maja Francis' new EP Cry Baby (Pt 1), which includes new track Stressed plus various other excellent moments (including last year's 9/10 I'm Not A Disco).
- Kacey Musgraves has gone a bit Daft Punk. The result is 100% BREEZY.
- E^ST's Blowjob is an extraordinary song with one hard-to-ignore lyric (there's a clue in the song's title!!) that we had trouble getting our heads around (STOP IT) before eventually arriving, late yesterday afternoon, at the decision that yes, the entire song really is undermined by the line "you just need a blowjob", which unfairly makes it feel a bit like a gimmick single. We sort of get why it's in there and what it's trying to do, but there you go. Funny how two syllables can make such a difference, but we live in an age where saying "wig" briefly revived Katy Perry's career so maybe pop's more about detail than ever before.
- Alan Walker, who you'll remember annoyed your dad in 2003 by ostentatiously taking his entire family on a skiing holiday, has remixed (or 'relifted') This Is Me off the Greatest Showman soundtrack. Readers, it is deep regret that we must report that the resulting three and a half minutes of audio are not ideal.
Subscribe to the playlist on Spotify
Housekeeping update: we won't be using Apple Music moving forward, so all future playlist updates will only be happening on Spotify.